St. John’s Metro Real Estate Market Update for FEBRUARY 2023
This update is focused on St. John’s Metro, which includes St. John’s, CBS, Mount Pearl, Paradise and Eastern Extension (Torbay, LBMCOC, Bauline, Pouch Cove, Portugal Cove-St. Phillps). Statistics are taken from NLAR’s MLS System and insights are my own.
How is the Market?
For the second month we are in a Buyers Market.
We determine this by looking at the inventory rate – which is how long it would take for all the homes on the market to sell if no new homes were listed. Right now there is 8 Months of Inventory on the market and anything above 6 is considered a buyers market.
We are coming out of a 10 month season where we had 5 months of inventory. Which would technically be considered a balanced market because it was between 4-6 months of inventory. However, this may have felt like a sellers market because St. John’s was not used to this low levels of inventory.
All this being said, there are areas of St. John’s where inventory is lower than others. So if you are a buyer, it really depends on where exactly you are looking.
There were 1230 Active Listings available in February. The number of active listings historically start to trend down in November and then come back up in March. So we should expect to see this number rise again this March.
However, if you look at the data year over year active listings are down. And, inventory is almost almost half the amount of what was available in the month of February 5 years ago. If you are thinking about selling your house, now is a great time to list because there is not a lot of competition.
There were 268 New Residential Listings in February. This was down from the previous month, which happens every February, mostly because there are less days in the month. What is notable, is that there is a big drop in new listings from last February and this is the second month in a row that we saw this number down. So buyers have not been given a lot of new options so far in 2023.
And There were 138 Homes Sold last month. This is up slightly from January and down year-over-year. So there are more new homes listed than sold, so inventory will start to increase but it is still very low.
How is the Market for Single Family Homes?
The Median Home Price in St. John’s metro for single family homes is $320,000. The reason I used the median price and not the average is because sometimes the average home price can be skewed by a couple of million dollar sales. The median price is if you took all the homes that sold and lined them up in a row and took the price right in the middle.
This price is up slightly from last month but the year-over-year growth is up 5.2%. So, home prices are still holding strong and higher than they have been for the month of February than they have been in the past ten years.
The average home is Selling in 59 days. Last summer, homes were selling in about 40 days. So the market isn’t moving as fast as last summer. But things are moving quicker than last February and what we have seen in February over the past 10 years.
So if you are a buyer you have a little bit more time to think about your purchase than you would have last summer, but don’t wait too long to make an offer because things are still selling fast. In fact, a nice home, in a desirable neighbourhood, that is priced right is still getting multiple offers.
In February, the average List-to-Sale Ratio was 97.8%. The List-to-Sale Ration shows how close buyers ended up paying to the price that the house was listed. In February, the list to sale ratio was 97.8%, which is the same as it was last year. So the average buyer is not paying full asking price for a house but about 2.2% under.
Interest Rates Update
Interest rates at the end of February for a 5 Year Fixed mortgage were 4.79% This is up slightly from January which was 4.48%, but down from December which was 4.99% with the same lender.
So interest rates are changing month to month, but not always increasing. If you are considering buying a home, go meet with your bank or mortgage professional to find out what rates they can offer.
(Rates kindly provided by Darryl Lane at East Coast Mortgage Brokers.)
Market Update Summary
- Home prices remain strong.
- Inventory is still very low, even though we are technically in a buyers market.
- Buyers haven’t been given much new options thus far in 2023, if you are considering Selling, now is a great time to do so.
How does the market update impact you?
We should talk! Everybody’s situation is a little bit different. If you are looking to buy, sell or invest give me a call, we can take a closer look at your specific area and how the market impacts you.
TEXT ME at 709-770-5565 or CLICK HERE to schedule a meeting.
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